They blindfolded his own officials before taking them to meet him. It was not enough.
In the final weeks of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s life, Iranian security protocols reached a level of paranoia without modern precedent. Senior officials who needed to meet the Supreme Leader were physically blindfolded before being transported to his location. Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was blindfolded before being driven to Khamenei’s hideout, then traveled onward to Oman for diplomatic meetings. This was not metaphorical. This was an intelligence service so terrified of penetration that it could not trust its own leadership with the coordinates of its head of state. Khamenei had retreated into a private underground bunker…
